Angels Vermillion
The Angels Vermillion is a Second Founding Successor Chapter of Space Marines created from the gene-seed of the Blood Angels. Its Chapter homeworld Corinal lies in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy. Alone of the Blood Angels' successors, the Angels Vermillion shun all contact with their brother Chapters, choosing to bear their lingering curse in solitude and isolation. Little is recorded of the Angels Vermillions' actions in the days since the Second Founding, but whenever the Chapter is mentioned, its battle record is nothing short of exemplary. Indeed, there are many among the Blood Angels Chapter Council who advocate efforts to establish closer ties to this elusive Successor Chapter, yet for reasons known only to himself, Lord Commander Dante has always refused. The Angels Vermillion care little for their relationship with the Blood Angels. They do not wish to be a part of the Blood Angels' wider brotherhood, as they wish to handle the Chapter's Flaw in their own way, without the interference from the Blood Angels and their other brother Chapters. The Angels Vermillion are willing to reveal their curse to the wider Imperium if the Blood Angels and their brother Chapters choose to move against them and prevent them from dealing with the curse in their chosen manner, even if this means they will pay in blood and divert their combined efforts away from the foes of humanity into pointless internecine strife. Chapter History Space Marine.]] The Angels Vermillion is a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels Legion, created during the massive reorganisation of the Imperial military set in motion by Roboute Guilliman in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. These Scions of Sanguinius can trace their origins to the Blood Angels Legion's 9th Company, the "Angels Vermillion," who were chosen to become a Successor "Chapter" when the Blood Angels Legion was sundered into those smaller formations. Stripped of heraldry, history and honour, the Angels Vermillion would forge their own destiny and write their own tallies of victory within their Chapter's annals. While most Blood Angels successors maintain close ties with one another and with their sire Chapter, the Angels Vermillion appear to be an exception. An aloof Astartes Chapter, they shun all contact with their brothers who are also descended from the Primarch Sanguinius, choosing to bear their lingering curse in solitude and isolation. Brother Rapheus, 4th Company, 4th Squad (battleline).]] Ironically, little is recorded in Imperial records of the Chapter's exploits since the Second Founding, but whenever they are mentioned, their battle record is nothing short of exemplary. The relief of the Quatandril Templesiege, the banishment of the daemon Ag'thax'rae'phael on Parnassium, even the desperate campaign known as the Thousand Days of Pain, all of these are shining moments in an otherwise shrouded history. While the Chapter has earned numerous battle honours prosecuting the Imperium's wars, they have very rarely been observed fighting in the same war zone as the Blood Angels or another of their successors. In addition to its apparent isolationist nature, the Angels Vermillion is a notoriously secretive Chapter, though it is hardly unusual for the Adeptus Astartes to shun the attentions of non-Space Marine institutions of the Imperium. Notable Campaigns *'Persecution by the Order of the Argent Shroud (Date Unknown.M41)' - Sometime prior to the Third War for Armageddon (in which the Chapter did not participate) the Angels Vermillion were subjected to attacks by the Adepta Sororitas' Order of the Argent Shroud for perceived heresy on their part under the leadership of Canoness Dissenta. *'The Hives of Hollonan (992.M41)' - In 992.M41, the Angels Vermillion aided the Blood Angels during the battle for the Hives of Hollonan. The Chapter sent a strike force to that world in answer of the astropathic call for assistance that was made to their Chapter homeworld of Corinal by the Blood Angels' Chief Librarian Mephiston when a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Kraken descended upon that Hive World. The Angels Vermillion fought alongside the Blood Angels and the Aeldari of Craftworld Ulthwe under the command of the venerable Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, who had brought his people into the fight for enigmatic reasons of his own. The Tyranids were crushed between the attacks of the three descending armies and this splinter of the coming Hive Fleet Kraken was removed from existence before its parent Hive Fleet arrived in full force. Eldrad Ulthran and his forces remained just long enough to see Mephiston recovered from the rubble, terribly wounded but miraculously still clinging to life. This second resurrection only served to increase Mephiston's legend within his Chapter -- and beyond. *'Scions of Sanguinius Conclave (999.M41)' - Teetering on the brink of oblivion following the events on the Shrine World of Sabien, the fate of the Blood Angels Chapter now required the magnanimity of their Successor Chapters. Lord Commander Dante summoned all of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters for a conclave on Baal following the near-disastrous Chapter civil war that nearly tore the Blood Angels apart. Dante called for the support of the Blood Angels successors to help aid the Chapter in the protection of their common Primarch's homeworld and his remains from the attack of both the Tyranids and the forces of Chaos. While Dante led the discussion at the conclave, the Apothecaria was working on a radical new procedure to replenish the ranks of the Blood Angels in one swift stroke: the lost art of replicae. Caecus was the Chief Apothecary or Apothecae Majoris of the Blood Angels. Disturbed by the dwindling numbers of his Chapter, and dreading its extinction, he was involved in fruitless experiments, which Lord Commander Dante ordered stopped, to clone Space Marines, thus eliminating the need to go through the arduous process of the maturation and implantation of the gene-seed in an Aspirant. However, Caecus disobeyed the order and secretly continued the experiments, prodded by an agent of the vile Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Fabius Bile. He was tricked into bringing Bile, who was disguised as a well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis, to Baal, mistakenly thinking the false "Magos" would help in cloning Space Marines to increase the Blood Angels' numbers. Through Bile's manipulations, Caecus was duped, and only managed to create monstrous, mutant clone-Astartes known as "Bloodfiends" who were consumed by the Red Thirst. These creatures were a shattered mirror reformed in the image of a Blood Angel, but lacked any of the qualities that could be thought of as human. The mutations that cursed the gene-seed of the Blood Angels had been enhanced by the machinations and Chaotic tech-heresy of Fabius Bile, and with each drop of blood they consumed, the thirst that dominated the Bloodfiends grew ever stronger. The mutants broke free from the confines of Caecus' laboratorium and began to run rampant through the sacred halls of the fortress-monastery of the Blood Angels. The Angels Vermillion, along with the Blood Angels and their fellow successors successfully defended their most sacred of sites on Baal -- the Golden Sarcophagus of Primarch Sanguinius within the sacred sepulchre where the Great Angel lay for all time, sleeping in light, forever preserved. The Sons of Sanguinius destroyed the horde of mutants and erased the stain of Chaos from their midst. They had paid for the continued sanctity of the Great Angel with their blood, and in the aftermath of this misery, Lord Commander Dante took responsibility for what had happened and he accepted it without complaint. Dante believed that it was his hubris that had brought the Chapter to this dark place. The Successor Chapters took this into consideration as well as Lord Commander Dante's original request for the successors to grant the Blood Angels a small tithe of their Chapter's Initiates in order to replenish the ranks of the Chapter. The Successor Chapters unanimously agreed to hand over to the Blood Angels some of their own Neophytes to help their ancestral Chapter rebuild its strength in the wake of the Chaos assault -- and in preparation for the oncoming assault by the Tyranids and the Forces of Chaos. *'Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41)' - The Angels Vermillion were among the forces deployed by the Blood Angels Successor Chapters to defend their parent Chapter's homeworld of Baal from an assault by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. Chapter Organisation The Angels Vermillion use the same organisation scheme as the Blood Angels. As such, they are considered partially Codex Astartes-compliant, like their ancestral Chapter. Chapter Homeworld The Angels Vermillion hail from the Chapter homeworld of Corinal -- a planet dominated by bright deserts and a boundless cobalt ocean. Green fringes the edges of the single, massive continent. Five long rivers dig worming emerald valleys across the land. A huge alpine mass at the centre is a striking collection of brown jungle canyons filigreed with white snowy ridges. The poles wear icy caps, bordered by grey tundra that gives way to yellow grassland. But these varied colours of terrestrial life are smudges against the dazzling white sands of the continental interior. Fortress-Monastery The Bloodspike, the fortress-monastery of the Angels Vermillion, is a fifteen-hundred-foot-tall spire that is topped with a monumental golden angel whose haloed face bows and is hidden within a deep hood. The fortress-monastery stands in the path of the monstrous waves that blow daily across the deep oceans by unopposed winds. The Bloodspike's bay atmospheric energy shield also contributes to the defence of the fortress-monastery against the great waves of the shallow sea. Chapter Beliefs The Angels Vermillion discovered early that by feeding the Red Thirst they can control it. The Chapter kept itself apart for shame, thinking themselves alone afflicted amongst the scions of Sanguinius. Ironically, it seems. For only a handful of Angels Vermillion fall to its ravages each standard year, and it forestalls the onset of the Black Rage for solar decades. All of the Angels Vermillion fall in the end, but in not so great numbers as the rest of the Sanguinary Brotherhood. Ever since the Second Founding, the Angels Vermillion have been ashamed of the Flaw, and the Red Thirst and Black Rage that it brings. In atonement, the Chapter has dedicated itself to wars of penitence, fighting battles that are never even noticed long enough to be forgotten, yet every engagement keeps the light of Mankind burning a little longer. The Chapter believes that the Blood Angels are blind, dazzled by the glory of ancient days that can never return. The Angels Vermillion see Sanguinus as a cursed Primarch, whose death has doomed all of the Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters. The Astartes of this Chapter fully accept the Flaw, seeing themselves as monsters when they should be angels. But they live in an era beset by worse monsters, and if embracing the darkness will keep the light shining for a little longer, then it must be so. The Sorrowing Every five solar decades, the Angels Vermillion conduct a ceremony called "the Sorrowing." The Chapter drains the blood from mortal-outsiders native to their homeworld and their Chapter Serfs. The victims' bodies are flensed and their bones cleaned, and the corpses are then interred with all honour in the Chapel of the Isle of Martyrs. The Space Marines then bathe in the collected blood. Into it, the Angels Vermillion pour the essence of Sanguinius by opening the veins of one of the Sanguinary Priests and drain him unto death. Then the blood is treated again, and prepared into the liquid food of battle. Thereafter it is introduced into each Power Armour's dispensers to nourish the Angels Vermillion in war. The Angels Vermillion name this ceremony as they do for the burden that it places upon their own souls, knowing that so many innocents must be bled to hold their rage at bay. Nevertheless, the men and women who sacrifice themselves to the thirst of the Angels Vermillion are honoured. They feel no pain. The Angels take no pleasure from the ceremony as they treat the dead mortals who gave their lives up in sacrifice for the defence of Mankind with the greatest respect. Deathwatch Service The secretive nature of the Angels Vermillion can come to the fore when its Battle-Brothers are called to stand a vigil of the Long Watch, and others of the Blood Angels or their successors are present in the same Watch Fortress or Kill-team. Such brethren are well represented in the ranks of the Jericho Reach's Deathwatch contingent, with several senior members of Watch Fortress Erioch's command cadre being drawn from such parent Chapters. It is notable that very few Battle-Brothers of the Angels Vermillion have stood a vigil in the Jericho Reach, and when they have, they have taken every possible step to avoid contact with those of their brother Chapters. Whether or not such individuals serving on the same Kill-team would degrade combat effectiveness or cause internecine strife is unknown, as yet. Notable Angels Vermillion *'Chapter Master Sargan Varsaris' - Sargan Varsaris was the first Chapter Master of the Angels Vermillion who was originally a Praetor of the Blood Angels Legion who served during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Most notably, he took part in some of the first campaigns of the Great Scouring, the war of reciprocity conducted by the Loyalist forces of the Imperium against the hated Traitor Legions following the Siege of Terra. Elements of the Blood Angels' 9th Chapter, known as the "Angels Vermillion," participated in the Scouring of the Nostramo Sector, the home sector controlled by the murderous Night Lords Traitor Legion. Located in the northeastern fringes of the galaxy, this benighted region of space had long been a stronghold of Legions sworn to the cause of Horus. This retribution fleet was initially led by Praetor Kaelon until his death at Sothis in 017.M31, and thereafter by Consul-Vigilator Sargan Varsaris, who was raised up to the position of Praetor upon his predecessor's death. During their sojourn in the Nostramo Sector, the Angels Vermillion discovered the wreckage of the Night Lords' cruiser Shroud of Eventide which had crashed upon the surface of the planet Kalleth several Terran years earlier. Marked for salvage, Praetor Varsair ordered the vessel to be raised in 020.M31 in preparation for the coming edict of the Second Founding, renaming it the Crimson Intent. The vessel would go on to serve the newly formed Angels Vermillion Chapter as their new flagship. *'Chapter Master Kuldoth Moar' - Kuldoth Moar was the successor of Chapter Master Chauld and is the current Chapter Master of the Angels Vermillion. He sought to prevent his Battle-Brothers from going to the aid of their parent Chapter, the Blood Angels, during the events of the Devastation of Baal. He did not succeed, and three companies of the Chapter under the command of Captain Fen defied his orders and made their way to Baal to aid in its defence from Hive Fleet Leviathan. *'Chapter Master Chauld' - Chauld was the Chapter Master of the Angels Vermillion in 428.M41. He was the one responsible for revealing their secret treatment of the Flaw to High Chaplain Hereon of the Blood Angels. Hereon did not accept the way the Angels Vermillion were treating their curse, yet Chauld was able to convince the High Chaplain to accept what he saw and leave his homeworld with a shocking message for Lord Commander Dante. It is because Dante knows the Angels Vermillion's secret that he has not pushed for closer connection between his Chapter and the Astartes of Corinal. Chapter Master Chauld was killed 40 standard years before the Devastation of Baal in battle with the Necrons and was succeeded by then-Captain Kuldoth Moar. *'Captain Fen' - Fen is a Captain of the Angels Vermillion. In defiance of his Chapter Master Kuldoth Moar, he tried to lead three companies to the aid of the Blood Angels before the Devastation of Baal. In the end, only Fen and a bare handful of his Battle-Brothers made it to Baal. It is unknown whether he survived the siege of Baal by Hive Fleet Leviathan. Chapter Relics *''Scipio's Regret'' - As with many other Blood Angels Successor Chapters, it is the practice of the Angels Vermillion to master many crafts and trades over the course of a Battle-Brother's long life. The ornate and intricate ornamentation worked into the Chainsword now called Scipio's Regret could not have been achieved without such a life span to perfect the craft. It might have been better for its wielder had he not made his work so well, for Scipio was mobbed by desperate underhivers after defeating the beasts that plagued them, with the ungrateful wretches seeking to steal his marvellous blade. A Deathwatch Kill-team on the world was diverted to avenge the noble warrior and recover his weapon. Chapter Appearance Chapter Colours The Chapter wears dark red Power Armour with a yellow Aquila or Imperialis emblem upon the chest plate. The Angels Vermillion were originally depicted as wearing carmine armour with a yellow chest Aquila. In the book How to Paint Space Marines, however, the Chapter is depicted in the scheme used by the Angels Encarmine: vermillion armour with a yellow chest eagle, black shoulder plate trim and backpack. The Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition) restored their original armour colour scheme. Chapter Badge The Angels Vermillion's Chapter badge is a winged blood drop, with a small skull at the base of the drop, which is very similar to the badge of the Blood Angels. Sources *''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels'' (8th Edition), pg. 14, 19 *''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels'' (7th Edition), pp. 50-52 *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (5th Edition), pp. 8, 17, 54, 80 *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (3rd Edition) *''Codex: Angels of Death'' (2nd Edition), pg. 34 *''Deathwatch: Core Rulebook'' (RPG), pg. 339 *''Deathwatch: Honour the Chapter'' (RPG), pp. 104-105, 132 *''How to Paint Space Marines'', pg. 82 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution'' by Alan Bligh, pg. 137 *''Red Fury'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''The Devastation of Baal'' (Novel) by Guy Haley, pp. 211-216, 223 *''Eminence Sanguis'' (Short Story) by Guy Haley Gallery File:AV_Astartes.png|An Angels Vermillion Astartes stands ready for battle File:AV_Mk_VI.jpg|Angels Vermillion Battle-Brother in Mark VI Corvus Pattern Power Armour File:Rhino.jpg|Angels Vermillion Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier es:Ángeles Escarlata Category:A Category:Blood Angels Category:Imperium Category:Space Marine Chapters Category:Space Marines Category:Second Founding